


Pay My Penance

by ProfoundCranium



Category: Original Work
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 17:40:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14549910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfoundCranium/pseuds/ProfoundCranium
Summary: Waking up in a dark alleyway with no clue of how she got there. This police officer is gonna have to figure out what happened to her memories. She's gotta be careful though. Things have changed while she was sleeping, and shadow stalk the streets...





	Pay My Penance

_Drip, drip, drip_

 

Cold. That was the first thing I felt as I slowly stirred from unconsciousness. A sharp, frigid wind blowing pieces of trash and paper in it's direction. The second thing I felt was pain. How did I know? Well, the aches and the burning agony in my shoulder ramming into me like a freight train was a nice reminder.

 

My first instinct was to just lay there for a bit, but the combination of low temperature, pain, and general uncomfortableness roused me into consciousness. I was lying on my back, The ground Frigid and wet. Something was dripping on  my face in an annoying fashion.

 

_"Yeah, this is a sucky way to wake up."_

 

Opening my eyes wasn't much better. It hurt just to crack my eyes open, but i forced myself to commit to my actions. My first sight upon opening my eyes was the sky. Glancing around I noticed the ridiculously high buildings surrounding me.  I was in an alleyway, it was currently raining and the sky was as dark and gloomy as it could get.  Luckily, it was only a light shower. Otherwise, I would be drenched.

 

Sitting up was a painful affair. My hair was wet as it was plastered to my face despite it's short cut. My body burned with the effort and my left shoulder was yelling at me to lay back down, as it felt like my arm was getting the crap stabbed out of it with a red hot needle.

 

"FUCK!!!"

 

I went to check my shoulder and noticed what I was wearing. My hands were clothed with heavy, black, and fingerless leather gloves. Heavy leather boots covered my feet. The rest of me was also garbed in baggy black clothing. Lots off pockets. Looking at my body my eyes widened at my torso. A collared, black, zip up Jacket was covering most of my upper torso along with lots of loaded gun magazines lining my abs and waist. My chest was covered in a heavy vest that was very forgiving to my female figure. Mounted on said vest was what looked like a radio along with a lethal looking knife.

 

"What the hell am I wearing?"

 

_Standard tactical military uniform with Bulletproof Vest_

 

I flinched as the words flashed through my head bringing a quick lance of pain along with it.

 

"Owww. That hurt."

 

Looking around my eyes widened in confusion and fear. The alleyway I was taking a nap in was a warzone. The concrete was torn up in places whilst others where covered in black marks and riddled with what looked to be bullet holes.

 

_"Wait…"_

 

I finally looked at my shoulder and saw that there was a bullet lodged right in the shoulder of my vest. I dashed upwards and instantly checked my arm for a hole. Luckily, there wasn't one, but my shoulder still stung terribly. It was probably bruised. Looking around I saw that there were two guns lying next to my resting place. I didn't recognize them, but something about them seemed familiar. Stepping closer and reaching towards the larger of the two guns, I picked it up.

 

"Huh, this is kinda light."

 

Lifting up the bigger gun, some sort of rifle, I examined it carefully.

 

The weapon seemed well cared for and looked as if it was loaded. Long and surprisingly thin with a small magazine and a scope on top. The end of the stock was made out of steel, but most of the gun, excluding the innards, seemed comprised of wood. Looking at the stock, I noticed that there were several scratches engraved in the steel. I stared at the stock wondering why those scratches were there.

 

"Whose gun Is this?"

 

_Yours_

 

Images and memory's pummeled my head bringing pain with them. Stumbling across the ground, I fall onto my butt as I close my eyes, willing the pain away.  After a few minutes the thumping in my skull subsides, but when I open my eyes something is different. The gun is still in my hands but it seems distinctive. I put my left hand on the underside of the rifle as I pull the bolt back with my right. Pulling the bolt back I say a name, a name that comes out of nowhere yet seems natural.

 

"Penance…"

 

I stare at the gun in shock, wondering what just happened, and why I know how to handle a Sniper rifle all sudden. Looking at the other gun on the ground, I wonder if it will cause the same pain in my skull as Penance did. Accepting my fate, I sling Penance over my shoulder in a practiced manner using the convenient leather strap. before crawling over to the other gun. It looked like some sort of pistol, a pistol the was very complicated. The barrel seemed three times longer than a barrel should be. There was also what I assumed to be laser sight on the underside of the gun.

 

Looking over the pistol, I discovered more markings on the handle of the pistol, just like Penance.

 

"What the hell do these markings even mean?"

 

No sooner had I uttered those words when I was assaulted by another barrage of images and memory's. I once again closed my eyes and waited until the pain was over. Once again, when it was over I knew exactly how to operate the weapon along with its name.

 

"Penalty…..I….I don't understand."

 

My hand started shaking but instinct allowed me to hold onto the gun as I stood up and stared at it.

 

"What is happening!? Why do I know how to use these weapons? Where am I?"

 

Holstering the gun in my chest holster, I spun around taking stock of my surroundings. The alleyway was one way. I was at the farthest end with the only entrance directly in front of me. I walked forward until I exited the dreary alley the street. I stared out at the street, and destruction stared back at me. Tall bland buildings stood up in all directions. The street held an air of emptiness and the area, at least the one I was in, looked as if life had abandoned all things. Leaving only inanimate objects behind, such as the cars lining the street. Most of the cars were vandalized. Either flipped on their sides or just beaten up. Windshields were shattered and various dents were all over every vehicle. The most confusing detail being the huge SUV's in a line across the street. Those seemed to be in great condition despite being abandoned.

 

"What……What happened here?"

 

Turning and walking down the sidewalk, I glanced into the building I was passed out next to, which happened to be a empty 7-11. It was completely abandoned and empty. Not even the lights seemed to be working in any of the rooms. I ran inside in an effort to find a bathroom. Checking the damage to my arm was important after all, plus getting out of the rain would be nice. Walking into the building, I realized just how quiet it was. Anxiety began to build in my chest. Where was everyone?

 

"Hello! Anyone here?"

 

I got silence in return. Damn it. Moving to the back of the small room, I found the bathroom and was surprised at the lack of a door. Gazing at the door with wide eyes, I saw that the door looked to be knocked off it’s hinges. Almost as if someone bashed it down. Shaking my head, I moved into the bathroom.

 

"This is not normal….in any way."

 

Wrecked, does not begin to describe this bathroom.  The walls were painted a homey white. Two stalls were taking up the far corner along with three urinals directly to the right of the entrance. The left side of the bathroom was line with sinks and mirrors. That was how the bathroom was SUPPOSED to look. How it actually looked was a completely different story. It looked like someone had run in here with a sledgehammer and went crazy. The stall walls were destroyed and lay on the floor in pieces . only one of the urinals was still on the wall. The other two were lodged in the opposite wall, shattering two different mirrors.  Only one sink remained untouched the sink in the far corner. The floor was covered in about an inch of slimy water that didn't let me see the floor.

 

"Well, shit." I breathed out as I walked over through the decimated bathroom over to the sink. Luckily, my boots prevented my feet from getting soaked. Standing in front of the sink I was already taking off the vest I was wearing. After that I unzipped the Black, ammo covered jacket revealing a black tank top. Black was apparently a theme with me. But hey, it looked good. Careful not to jostle any of the ammo, I placed the clothes into the miraculously dry sink. Then, after making everything secure, I looked at my face for the first time since waking up.

 

 _"What the hell happened to me?"_ Was my first thought.

 

 Average was one of the words coming to mind at my appearance. I was blessed with pale skin. My face had nice, even proportions. A decent amount of fat on my cheeks and several light freckles dotting the area around my cheeks and nose. My eyes were a bright green And my Hair was Crimson red and short, not even going past my neck. Fortunately, my hair had also gotten quite spiky despite it's dampness. Basically, i looked like something out of an anime.

 

That was where my averageness ended. I looked strong and muscled from years of exercise. Height wise I was nothing special but With my weird memory anything was up for grabs. My face was covered in various scars. Reaching up, with a delicate touch I brushed a finger over each scar. With every touch my head pulsed in tandem, remembering each injury.

 

The graze on my right cheek? 

 

_A bullet graze from a hostile sniper._

 

The scratch down my left eye?

 

_A cut from a knife fight gone wrong._

 

The sudden onslaught of violence and pain was a bit much for me to handle so, cradling my head in my hands, I closed my eyes and waited for the pain to subside.

 

After a few moments the throbbing of my head ceased. I also realized that with all these headache's a few painkillers wouldn't be a bad idea. I glanced around the bathroom. My eyes landing on a medicine cabinet right next to the entrance. It that looked a little bashed up, but otherwise it was fine.

 

Dashing Over, I grabbed the medical cabinet with intent on seeing it's contents. Yanking at the door yielded no results, due to a padlock on the door. Growling in frustration, I stepped back to the sink and grabbed Penalty before marching towards the cabinet. Leveling the handgun at the lock I winced as my left shoulder screamed in protest.

 

 _" *hiss*_ Shit, okay. No shooting with hurt arm. Guess I'll just one hand it then."

 

Gripping the gun in my RIGHT hand, I aimed the gun at the lock with one hand as I stared down the sights.

 

I drew in a deep breath while fingering the trigger. An oddly familiar, muffled male voice started counting in my head.

 

_"5…4…!"_

 

I tensed up and narrowed my eyes at the padlock.

 

_"3…2…1! Breach!!"_

 

I pulled the trigger, making the padlock blow apart into pieces. The gun's recoil flowed naturally into my hand. The gun was surprisingly quiet in it's feedback. Instead of a loud bang, all I heard was a gentle _Zip_ sound. I relaxed and lowered the gun. Looking down I noticed the smoke coming from the barrel. The smell seemed familiar and bitter. My head started pounding again, much worse than before

I didn't even feel my head hit the floor before everything faded away.

 

* * *

 

 

 

Suddenly my heart rate picked up, like something felt severely wrong. Looking past the gun I saw the floor and noticed something different. The water….it was gone. In it's place was concrete. Then I noticed the sounds. Screams and gunfire erupted from all directions seemingly all at once. Gasping in shock, I looked back up and saw a living nightmare.

 

A line of police patrol cars and SUV's, just like the ones outside the alleyway I woke up in. Soldiers garbed in black attire much like my own stood in the middle of a street as they fired various weapons into a crowd of beings straight out of a horror story. I don't know how to describe what I saw in that crowd. At first glance it seemed like a crowd of people. Yet…it all seemed, wrong somehow. Then I noticed the details. Entire body parts missing, dead lifeless eyes, the sounds. Dear god, the sounds as they slowly shuffled towards the line of soldiers. The low groaning was enough to make me simply stare in muted horror at the monstrous crowd slowly closing in on me.

 

"Corpses…" I whispered before realizing how right I was. That’s exactly what they looked like. A crowd of living corpses shambling towards me.

 

"Lieutenant Quill!"

 

I stood transfixed in horror as, despite the soldiers efforts, the crowd of undead slowly gained ground against them.

 

"Goddammit Lydia! HELP US!"

 

I screamed as my head erupted into a pulsating headache that put the memory's I'd felt before this to shame. I stood there as minute after minute dragged by, grasping my head waiting for the pain to subside. It felt like something was burrowing into my head, looking for a specific memory but unable to locate it.

 

Until…..it did.

 

My head gave one final, painful pulse before it was gone as quick as it came. And in it's place was a basic memory. Something that I hadn't even noticed was gone.

 

My name, Lydia Quill.

 

 

 

I stood there for a long time, simply catching my breath after that painful ordeal. I was back in the bathroom, sitting on the ground. My back was up against the wall, on the far end of the entrance.

 

"This _*huff*_ is beginning _*huff*_ to get _*huff*_ ridiculous."

 

I stepped forward and opened up the medicine cabinet, hoping that their were some non description painkillers for me to use. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could take that wouldn't have some ill side affects. For example, sleepiness that lasts for hours doesn't sound wise in this scenario. Luckily, there was some basic antiseptics and clean bandages. I nabbed everything off the shelves knowing that it all could come in handy later, before walking back over to my gear.

 

"There should be pockets for this crap somewhere on here."

 

I pulled the armor out of the dry sink and dumped the medical supplies into it instead. Slowly, I began the slow process of putting my gear back on. Which is surprisingly hard when your arm is bruised black, blue, and purple. After five minutes I was beginning to get impatient. After wincing for the five hundredth time while trying to lift my arm over my head, I called quits on the vest and just decided to ditch it. After all, it was dented and probably damaged on the inside in ways I couldn't see.

 

I stripped the vest of the radio and knife. Moving the gear to more appropriate areas on my belt. A Belt that just so happened to have areas made for a radio and knife. Thankfully the extra pockets were able to take the bandages and such along with the radio and knife combo.

 

"Huh….how convenient."

 

I Left the vest in the bathroom, On the sink. Hopefully I'll get a new one that is a bit easier to put on.

 

Walking back out into the main store I looked around a bit more. I moved over to the entrance and grabbed one of the baskets scattered on the floor. Leaning down to pick up the handbasket I felt the various items in my jacket shift around a bit. Glancing at the store I suddenly realized an important detail. There was absolutely no way to carry all the stuff I had on me without something to carry it in. Something better than a basket. Sighing in exasperation, I covered my face with my left hand and picked up the basket with the other.

 

"I need to find a backpack or something cause this is gonna get ridiculous fast."

 

Traipsing through the store didn't give me much in the way of supplies. The freezers in the back were mostly picked clean aside from a few stray bottles of water. The shelves didn't have much either other than a TON of discarded fast food on the floors that was obviously inedible based on the mold growing on it. The granola bars left on the shelves looked good enough. After roughly ten minutes of searching through the main store I had three bottles of water, one bottle of Gatorade, and about a box worth of granola bars of various flavors.

 

"It's something, I guess."

 

I felt something wrong with this store, especially with it being wrecked and completely picked clean the way it was. Then again, nothing had seemed essentially correct about any of this. I mean. Come on. Waking up with a bullet in your shoulder and no memory of how you got there Is hardly normal. Deciding that I couldn't get anything else from this section of the store I walked around the main desk into the "Employees Only" section. I didn't think anyone would care if I went into the back since this place was more or less abandoned anyway. The door behind the cashier desk was surprisingly untouched. Switching the basket of food to my left hand, which stung like a bitch, I tried to turn the knob with my right. Tried being the key word there. The door wouldn't budge. It was, for some mysterious reason, locked. I closed my eyes and let loose a heavy sigh at my luck.

 

"Fuuuuuck." I groaned out as I set the basket down by the door along and started to search the main desk in search of the keys. Wasting bullets didn't seem to be very smart. I  searched various drawers and cabinets and came up with more of the same. Empty drawers that had been emptied thoroughly of anything worthwhile.  Discarded pieces of paper, candy wrappers, and….hair care products?  One of the drawers had been essentially untouched. I thought I was lucky, till I opened it and found hair care products. Such as shampoo, hair gel, a hair dryer, and some bobby pins. Disappointment is hitting me pretty hard right about now. Laying the items out on the table I let out a sigh.

 

"Out of all the things I could have found. Maybe this is the universe's way of telling me I look like crap."

 

Double checking the drawer I even found some red hair dye. The exact same shade as my hair. The coincidence is actually kinda funny.

 

"Jokes on you universe, I'm a natural redhead."

 

Ignoring the other items that were more or less useless at the moment, I picked up and inspected the small box of bobby pins. The box fit into the palm of my hand and seemed lighter than it should have been. Opening the box revealed why, a third of the pins had already been used. Presumably by the previous owner.

 

"Well, wherever she is," I said glancing over the rest of the items on the table, "At least  she has amazing hair!"

 

Chuckling at my poor attempt of a joke, I closed the small box and turned toward the lock. Then I looked back at the box in my hands, and back at the lock again. I could practically feel the lightbulb go off in my head as another memory crawled out from the depths of my brain. Learning how to pick a lock at a young age, utilizing this useful skill in my daily life. Gripping my head and tensing at the small yet still noticeable pounding in my skull, I waited until the memory ran it's course.

 

Sighing in relief at the memory's end, I removed a bobby pin from the box along with my knife and got to work on the lock. While I worked I questioned these memory flashbacks. They were seeming a little too convenient for my taste. Every time I questioned something, my battered excuse for a brain would literally pound the answer into my skull.  For now it was fine. But, if I had a slip up like that one in the bathroom at the wrong time. I could be royally screwed.

 

My train of thought came to a screeching halt as the door unlocked with a small * _click_ * sound. Putting my knife back into my holster, I walked into the room and took a look around.

 

The room was dark, that didn't really matter though. The smell hit me anyway. It felt like my throat and nose was suddenly clogged with sewage. Like a wall of odor slammed into me the second I took a step forward.

 

I reached over to the wall and flicked on a light. My eyes widened and I ran out of the room. Spending the next several minutes heaving my guts up was already unpleasant. But the milky glazed over eyes burned into my retinas and the scent of blood wafting out the door made it feel even worse.

 

What a way to wake up.

 

 

 

**To Be Continued…**

 

 


End file.
